The humanitarian impact of the 2015-2016 El Niño is deeply alarming, affecting over 60 million people globally. The El Niño phenomenon is now in a neutral phase, but food insecurity caused by drought is not likely to peak before December. East and Southern Africa are the most affected regions, and humanitarian impacts will last well into 2017.

PR 02/129
Rome, 17 December 2002 - Some
40 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are threatened by severe food shortages
and a major humanitarian crisis is deepening in southern Africa, the UN
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today.